During this visit, you should work with one or more groups of students if you haven't already, and observe your teacher doing the same. For this journal entry, describe your teacher's teaching style. What type of relationships with students does he or she nurture in his or her classes? How do students perceive that power is distributed in the classes? Does this vary within or across the different classes the teacher has? Cite examples from your observations to support your inferences. Remember to reflect on what style of teaching you will gravitate toward and the how you want to be perceived by your students.
My middle school CT has a motherly/nurturing teaching style. She often calls the students sweetheart or sweetie. This is a 6th grade class so I do not think the students mind. If she were teaching 8th grade it may be more of a problem. My high school CT has an authoritative friend teaching style. She is a bit more sarcastic and jokes around with students. I notice a little softer affect with a little bit more nurturing in her ELL class. I think my own personal style will depend on what grade I end up teaching. I can see how a nurturing style may work with younger kids but backfire with the older students. As students get older they need to be more equal however the teacher still needs to retain authority. I think this style will develop over time as I spend more time with students in the classroom.
Observe a laboratory activity or base your answer on past visits. How does your CT conduct a typical laboratory activity? How does he or she open the activity and organize student groups? How do students learn what they're expected to do during the period? Reflect on your reading about the NGSS science and engineering practices. What science practices do you want to stress when you're teaching?
High school- Students doing a lab on photosynthesis. Students submerge some spinach leaf disks in a solution and then see how rapidly they float to the surface. As the leaf disks photosynthesize they produce oxygen and eventually the disks float. The class begins by giving the students the lab protocol handout this is the first time they have seen the lab. They are asked to read it and highlight all of the verbs while the teacher gets the rest of the materials ready. They are then given supplies and asked to conduct the lab as the teacher walks around and observes, asks questions and tries to make sure everyone is following instructions. It seems to be hard sometimes to get the students actually started. Time is short so we have to keep pushing them to get going with the lab. I only observed the day lab was carried out no pre or post lab discussions about the lab. I observed this lab on two days. On the first day they were just conducting the control experiment but on the second day students were able to change a variable of their choice. Some students changed the color of light, others changed the CO2 in the solution. One group wanted to change the number of leaf disks. After questioning them about what changing the number of leaf disks would tell them about the system they changed their mind to change another variable. It seemed that some groups picked the easiest variable to change rather than thinking about what would make a difference. Middle school- There is a lot more pre-lab prep to help the students understand what they will be doing. The go over the lab the day before they run it so students will know how to use the different materials. This allows the teacher to make sure students are prepared for the lab. Students are divided into groups of 3-4 students. Students have lab packet they started the day before the lab. On the packet students write down a focus question about the lab and they write down hypothesis, materials and then results and conclusions. The teacher uses the terms claims and evidence a lot to help the students see what the data is showing. The use of the terms claims and evidence is related to the NGSS and the common core. Another part of labs in middle school is that the students have a lab contract. They have a list of expectations and rules they must follow in lab. One of the rules I really liked was that everyone must participate. This means that one student can’t do everything while the others watch. In my own plan for conducting labs,One of the most important things to do is for me to do the labs ahead of time. Going over the lab will help me see where the problems might come from and I can make sure that the lab will actually work under my conditions in the classroom. My high school CT did not do the lab ahead of time and only followed the advice of another teacher that had run the lab. When we were actually doing it we found that it took a lot longer for the disks to sink than expected which took up a chunk of the time. I also think the pre- and post lab is very important. Pre lab is important for making sure students know the protocol. This makes everyone more efficient on the day of the lab and theoretically should prevent errors in following the procedures. The pre lab is also a great time to talk about variables so students know what is the control and what is a variable. I liked how in the high school lab they were able to change a variable of their choice. This allows them to explore independently and answer any questions they might have had. Being able to change things in the lab aligns with the NGSS because they are following the scientific process. The post lab is where you get to make all the connections between the data and what students are learning in the classroom. Finally, I will also have a lab contract in my classroom. I think this is a great time to make the expectations of lab day clear to all students. Labs are a fun way of learning but they are also chaotic so everyone needs to behave in order to do labs.
My middle school CT has a motherly/nurturing teaching style. She often calls the students sweetheart or sweetie. This is a 6th grade class so I do not think the students mind. If she were teaching 8th grade it may be more of a problem. My high school CT has an authoritative friend teaching style. She is a bit more sarcastic and jokes around with students. I notice a little softer affect with a little bit more nurturing in her ELL class.
I think my own personal style will depend on what grade I end up teaching. I can see how a nurturing style may work with younger kids but backfire with the older students. As students get older they need to be more equal however the teacher still needs to retain authority. I think this style will develop over time as I spend more time with students in the classroom.
Observe a laboratory activity or base your answer on past visits. How does your CT conduct a typical laboratory activity? How does he or she open the activity and organize student groups? How do students learn what they're expected to do during the period? Reflect on your reading about the NGSS science and engineering practices. What science practices do you want to stress when you're teaching?
High school- Students doing a lab on photosynthesis. Students submerge some spinach leaf disks in a solution and then see how rapidly they float to the surface. As the leaf disks photosynthesize they produce oxygen and eventually the disks float. The class begins by giving the students the lab protocol handout this is the first time they have seen the lab. They are asked to read it and highlight all of the verbs while the teacher gets the rest of the materials ready. They are then given supplies and asked to conduct the lab as the teacher walks around and observes, asks questions and tries to make sure everyone is following instructions. It seems to be hard sometimes to get the students actually started. Time is short so we have to keep pushing them to get going with the lab. I only observed the day lab was carried out no pre or post lab discussions about the lab. I observed this lab on two days. On the first day they were just conducting the control experiment but on the second day students were able to change a variable of their choice. Some students changed the color of light, others changed the CO2 in the solution. One group wanted to change the number of leaf disks. After questioning them about what changing the number of leaf disks would tell them about the system they changed their mind to change another variable. It seemed that some groups picked the easiest variable to change rather than thinking about what would make a difference.
Middle school- There is a lot more pre-lab prep to help the students understand what they will be doing. The go over the lab the day before they run it so students will know how to use the different materials. This allows the teacher to make sure students are prepared for the lab. Students are divided into groups of 3-4 students. Students have lab packet they started the day before the lab. On the packet students write down a focus question about the lab and they write down hypothesis, materials and then results and conclusions. The teacher uses the terms claims and evidence a lot to help the students see what the data is showing. The use of the terms claims and evidence is related to the NGSS and the common core. Another part of labs in middle school is that the students have a lab contract. They have a list of expectations and rules they must follow in lab. One of the rules I really liked was that everyone must participate. This means that one student can’t do everything while the others watch.
In my own plan for conducting labs,One of the most important things to do is for me to do the labs ahead of time. Going over the lab will help me see where the problems might come from and I can make sure that the lab will actually work under my conditions in the classroom. My high school CT did not do the lab ahead of time and only followed the advice of another teacher that had run the lab. When we were actually doing it we found that it took a lot longer for the disks to sink than expected which took up a chunk of the time. I also think the pre- and post lab is very important. Pre lab is important for making sure students know the protocol. This makes everyone more efficient on the day of the lab and theoretically should prevent errors in following the procedures. The pre lab is also a great time to talk about variables so students know what is the control and what is a variable. I liked how in the high school lab they were able to change a variable of their choice. This allows them to explore independently and answer any questions they might have had. Being able to change things in the lab aligns with the NGSS because they are following the scientific process. The post lab is where you get to make all the connections between the data and what students are learning in the classroom. Finally, I will also have a lab contract in my classroom. I think this is a great time to make the expectations of lab day clear to all students. Labs are a fun way of learning but they are also chaotic so everyone needs to behave in order to do labs.